Memorable moments from past SOTUs

Memorable moments from past State of the Union responses

When the opposition’s take goes off the rails

WASHINGTON, D.C. – There’s a lot of pomp and circumstance that surrounds any president’s State of the Union address, and it doesn’t always go off without a glitch. Remember Bill Clinton’s tendencies to go off script? He still holds the title of longest spoken address to date.

But in recent years, the opposition’s televised responses have often resulted in particularly cringe-worthy moments.

On Tuesday, freshman Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, will give the Republican Party’s 10-minute response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech, and Rep. Curt Clawson, R-Fla., will give the Tea Party’s.

Ernst is a former pig farmer, something she often brought up during her commercials and speeches. Clawson won the special election race in Florida seven months ago and touts himself as the “outsider for Congress.”

We’ll have to wait and see if their responses end up along side some of the blunders of those who went before them. Here are two memorable responses:

1) Promising young Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla, gave the SOTU response in 2013. He might have had some interesting things to say, if we could only get over how frequently he drank from his water bottle.

2) Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-Minn, was a Tea Party darling back in 2011 when she was chosen to give their SOTU response. Unfortunately she wasn’t too well acquainted with which camera was shooting her live, and spent the entire speech looking the wrong way.

Not surprisingly comedians seized on the gaffes. Saturday Night Live created spoofs of both speeches. Here is Rubio’s: